holly goes all bungalow
by Septemius
Summary: a story about holly's summer when she goes to a lake where people have been dissepearing others characters from series appear LOVEITNOW!
1. Chapter 1

As we turned onto a wide dirt road a huge lake came into view. There were boats with senior men lazily fishing, a few kayakers racing each other from one side to another, and a couple of children splashing around the shores. Though it seemed filled mostly with adults, I was glad the summerhouse was at least on a nice lake and I felt a bit happier my "gardians" had inherited one from their great aunt twice removed or something.

For the rest of the afternoon we unpacked our stuff into a small bungalow located a few meters into the trees surrounding the lake. The whole time the only thing I could think about was jumping into the depths. All afternoon I had a wild fantasy in my mind of finding a sunken ship with treasure worth millions. I simply could not wait to get my bathing suit on. Unfortunately by the time we had finished unpacking night was already falling but Vera and Meg insisted that we go to some community campfire. (They wanted to meet our neighbors and the whole "bungalow community.") And seeing as they are kind of illegaly adopting me I will let them force me to do just about anything. I mean if someone is putting themselves out there for you like that they can get away with alot.

As we trudged towards the fire pit Vera excitedly talked about how he wanted to meet all the great people and maybe there would some people my age and blah. I just smiled and nodded because I knew there probably wouldn't be someone my age, let alone my century. As we approached the fire pit I was pleasantly surprised to see that my assumption had been wrong. There was a boy who looked around my age and like he had a little too much of all this family bonding as well. We shared a smile and he came over and sat down next to me on the log followed by what must have been his younger sister. Older people, most with silver hair, milled around talking in their elderly ways. The small girl turned to me. She looked about ten or eleven. "Hey I'm Sarah, you guys new here?"

"Yeah, my uhh... mom got a house here from her aunt I think. I'm Holly by the way."

"I'm Tyler," The older boy introduced. "So where are you-"

"So have you heard about all of the strange deaths around here?" Sarah interrupted.

"No Sarah, you know that's only a legend, no truth behind it." Then he saw the curiosity in my eyes. "Oh its nothing, just some stupid story!"

"No its not! Just ask old George. GEORGE!" A balding man wearing a plaid sweater turned away from what looked like a very animated conversation with Vera. "George tell Holly the story about all of the strange deaths."

"No Sarah," a middle aged man who I thought must have been her father interrupted, "you have to stop with those ridiculous stories."

"But you've only been here a year Silas," the plaid man argued, "You haven't seen any of the strange happenings. Just four summers ago a girl went for a night swim and never returned." My imagination took me away from finding buried treasure to finding a girls dead body floating slightly before the bottom, pieces of her flesh gnawed away by fish. Lovely eh? "Most assumed she had drown. But she was a strong swimmer that one. No something definitely strange happens to that lake at night." By now the whole idea of this awesome lake was about ruined. I certainly wouldn't go swimming tonight like I had planned. I didn't even know if I would go during the day surrounded my other swimmers. "And she wasn't the only one, oh yes, I remember twenty years back a couple went out for a romantic boat ride one night and never returned. And there've been others as well. Why yes, there's definitely something fishy about that lake." He wagged his finger at me.

"So do you have any idea what could possibly be causing these deaths?" I asked.

Tyler rolled his eyes at me. "I know! There's a deranged, warped, gigantic turtle that eats people alive… no wait it's the lake. The lake gets hungry for human flesh sometimes. It just swallows people whole."

"Yes that's my theory." George agreed. "The lake gives so much to us. We relax on its shores, swim, fish, and canoe. There are endless possibilities of things to do. The lake gives so much to us." he repeated. "I'm sure when it gets hungry it usually preys on fish and we just don't notice. But once in a blue moon it just can't help but satisfy its cravings…"

Gosh, the people you meet at bungalow colonies.


	2. Chapter 2

As much as I was a bit skeptical before we arrived at the campfire, I have to admit I had fun. Tyler was really nice and Sarah was just so _hyper. _At first it was a little awkward, but as the night went on there were less silences as well as less old people. Finally their father said it was Sarah's bedtime, and Meg and Vera told me to meet them back at the bungalow. So it was just Tyler and I sitting around the fire. And as we continued to talk I couldn't help but notice how sweet his smile was or how _flowy_ his hair was.

"Yeah my Middle school's mascot is a bullfrog! I mean its like we hop to victory, we will make you croak."

"So mine's a giraffe!"

"Seriously?"

"Nahh, but wouldn't that be awesome!!? I love giraffes! Did you know that they have the same amount of bones in their neck as humans do?"

"Well now I do," I said laughing.

…

"So are there any other people our age around here?" I asked.

"Well sometimes my cousins come and stay in our bungalow. The guy is my age and the girl is a year younger. Come to think of it my uncles coming the day after tomorrow" As he said that I noticed he wrinkled his nose.

"You don't like them?"

" Well I guess he's okay, but his sister…man is she nuts"

"In what way?"

He went on to tell me how she has earrings all up both her ears, like twenty on each one, and how she also dyes her hair this disgusting red color. And wile he is talking something in the back of my mind is clicking, but the disbelief is stopping it from making it into logical thoughts.

"My uncle usually brings both of them up for a bit of the country, you know? Of course Heather hates it up here. Thankfully I think this year she is in Europe-"

"HEATHER??…?"

Now my jaw is dropping a little bit because there's no way this guy is an Acosta, there's just no way.

"Um yeah... that's her name."

"Acosta?"

"How did you know?"

"Lets just say I know her, and Casey too." I added, "So Casey's coming in a few days?" I asked trying to look at the bright side.

"Yeah, I guess… you okay?"

"I'm okay, I just can't believe you're related to her!" I was now getting a good idea of what it was like for Sammy to find out Casey was Heather's brother.

"How do you know them anyway?"

So then I had to go into a whole explanation of how heather and my friend Sammy are archenemies and I've seen how crazy she can get and how she's just plain _evil. _And after I was talking for a few minutes, I felt kind of bad. I mean it's the same way I cant help that my parents weren't good at taking care of me, or that Sammy's mom is crazy. You can't help whom you're related to, and cay had sure proved himself to be a true friend, so Tyler was probably the same way. Besides he hardly ever saw her and when he did he seemed just as disgusted with her as the rest of us.

So as my minds on top speed, he's just sitting there watching me with a bemused expression etched right across his face.

"Its getting kind of late maybe I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Maybe we can go swimming or something?"

"Yeah definitely, you should invite one of your friends to come up here as well, it would be like a party. And we can definitely use some more people our age around here!"

"Haha okay see you tomorrow."

So I start walking down the path towards my bungalow, and my minds racing. I couldn't help but wonder how many awesome people Heather was related to and if her family was half good and like half evil or something. So while my mind is in somewhere far off I start getting this prickly feeling in my neck. Like someone's watching me. Now I've had experience with this stuff. I can definitely say I've been in plenty of situations that I probably shouldn't have been. But this time I was also alone in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. The stories about all of those people who had gone missing through the years were fresh in my mind. Suddenly, like the crack of a whip, a twig cracked through the night, and I took off running as fast as I could. Silently cursing the fact I had left my skateboard in the house. I wasn't thinking logically, I wasn't thinking that it was probably a squirrel or something. I just ran marveling about how on edge I was without realizing it. Then I saw it, the bungalow a few feet into the woods. I sprinted the last few meters, and WHAM. I was on my face on the ground. Shell-shocked owls were flying from the trees and poor chipmunks went running. Vera threw herself out the front door so see what happened as did several of our elderly neighbors. I sat there on the ground starting to shake with embarrassment.

"Everything's fine, sorry." I said blushing

And that's how my night ended, with me not being as excited for the next day as I could have been.


	3. Chapter 3

**heyy okay Ive actually turned this into a fanfic and i have a good idea of where its going ITS CRAZY**

**and Im not van drannen**

**and i got the rat idea from the angie sage 3**

**review :**

The next morning I woke up when the sun woke up. (Blame the lack of window coverings) So I got up and began to prepare breakfast. Sometimes I go out of my way to prepare a nice breakfast for Vera and Meg as a sort of thank you for adopting me type of thing. I usually try to make some type of pancakes or fruit salad or something nice. Not today. Nope store made bagels it was. So as I am attempting to cut a bagel in half I hear someone stomping outside in our front yard. Then walking up to the front door. And I dunno, but I was still a bit shaken up from the idea of people disappearing around 'these parts'. When the story was told from that crazy man's point of view it may have been funny, but the idea of people disappearing sure wasn't. In fact is really creeped me out. Then the doorknob began to jiggle, very slowly mind you. I felt the tension building in my back, and there's no way I want to end up on the bottom of a lake. So as the jiggling is getting louder and louder I am looking for anything_, anything_ to defend myself with. And then I look down and realize, how very convenient, I was holding a steak knife in my hand, the one I had been previously attempting to cut my bagel with.

So now I'm wielding this thing before me ready to defend myself against anything that may come through that door. Suddenly the door banged open and I froze. And thank goodness that I did because who walked through that door but Sammy's grandmother. So as I'm wondering what the hell is going on, or if I'm hallucinating Vera comes in behind her and jumps when she sees what I am holding. "Honey put that down before you hurt someone!'

"Sorry I muttered," and I placed the knife back onto the table. "Um, hi Mrs. Keyes, what are you doing here?"

"Oh I thought this would be a nice surprise!" Vera cut in smiling When I was talking to that man Silas last night he said how much more fun his kids seem to have when their cousins came over, how nice it was for them to have someone with a similar age. Meg and I contacted Rita last night and we all thought it would be wonderful if she and Sammy stayed here with us for a nice vacation!"

"Wait Sammy is here?" I interrupted. (For some reason my mind was having trouble functioning at a normal pace.)

"Of course Rita added," She would be up here already except she insisted on carrying both of our bags," she rolled her eyes. "You can go back for her if you would like."

"I'd love to!" I said finally having everything sunk in. Sammy was going to be here with me. This little 'vacation' wasn't going to suck after all!

I ran outside down the dirt path until I about crashed into Sammy. "I'm so glad you're here!" I cried hugging her. "Here let me help you." I took one of the heavy looking bags she was carrying.

"You seem excited to see me," she said bluntly stating the obvious.

"YES! Are you kidding? There are only old people who hang around here. And one told me this really creepy story about all the people who have gone missing in this lake. He's nuts!

"So there are psycho old people here? Come on Holly I live in the senior high rise, it cant be _that _bad."

"Well there is this one guy Tyler. He's pretty nice. You will never believe who he's related too. HEATHER!! And Tyler says Casey is coming to stay with him tomorrow. He says heather usually comes too but I guess she's still in Europe or something. He's glad though he hates her too!" I guess I said that all kind of rushed because Sammy took a minute to let that sink in. I turned away as I felt myself blushing.

"So your telling me there's an Acosta here?"

"Well yeah. He seems really nice too."

"So you, this guy Tyler, Casey and I are going to be hanging out. That sounds reallllyyyy bad. In fact, it sounds like this vacation is gunna suck!" she said smiling.

So Sammy and her grandmother unpacked and I went into a more detailed explanation of what had been going on. And after her bag was empty she was ready to stop hearing about all of these people and start seeing them for herself. We left saying I was going to show her around.

"So how did you get here so quickly anyway?"

"Houston actually. Vera insisted Grams should invite a friend and a suggested Houston. It took a lot of convincing… you know how Grams gets. Though finally she realized that the only way we were going to get up here was if he drove us. Besides supposedly he knows someone who lives up here. That's where he is right now, catching up. We will meet up with him later." We were now walking through the brush near the side of the road. Suddenly I realized I was walking alone.

"Sammy? Where did you go?"

"Back here. Sorry I tripped over something." I looked back and saw that she was kneeling near the side of a rusty spigot. I breathed a sigh of relief. I don't know what it was but something about this bungalow colony made me feel like there was a whole story hidden in this place, and it made me nervous. "Hey look, there's a path here." It was completely over grown. There were weeds sticking up through the cobblestones. It wouldn't have been noticeable except that someone had obviously just been down there for the weeds were crushed down in a few places.

Now if you know Sammy you know she cant just see someone walk into an ally and not follow them, she cant just see an old broken down hotel, she has to have a look inside and she definitely cant see an old hidden path with out having to see where it leads. So after we followed the path for a few minutes we came to a dilapidated house sitting in a clearing. Some of the tiles had fallen off the roof and the shingles looked as if they were in the process of disintegrating. The sun was hardly able to penetrate the thick canopy of leaves over our heads. We hardly made a sound for leaves carpeted the forest floor. Eire sounding classical music came floating towards us from the inside. Most of the bungalows were somewhat nice and clean if not fixed up since the time they were built. This looked like it was the oldest one in the entire place as well as probably not has been cleaned for seventy years. I am not going to lie there were chills going up and down my spine. Sammy didn't seem bothered though as she began slowly walking towards the house. I ran to catch us with her but slowed down as we came closer to a window. "Watch out," she warned me, "termites." I looked down and saw little bugs crawling over one of the fallen shingles.

Now at this point many girls would probably be forcing themselves not to scream. Thankfully I am not like that at all. Perhaps if it were Marissa McKenzie in my place it would be a different story. But I'm not like that and bugs are usually the least of my worries. I suppose after living in a box by a riverbed you get used to them. I think that's why me that stupid story freaking me out was so frustrating to me. I never get like that.

So now Sammy is slowly approaching the window. There were old, yellowing, lace curtains hanging from them. (Note to self: Need to get some of those) now as she's trying to peek between the curtains I'm looking around hoping that no one sees us.

"Oh my gosh, Holly you have to see this." She turned to me looking some what disgusted. I tip toed over and peek in between the crack in the curtains.

The room looked like a once nice room gone to seed. The chairs and couch look like they had once been finely upholstered, but the fabric had now turned a garish shade of pink and was beginning to tear. The music we had heard earlier was coming from one of those old jobbies with the horn on top and the needle swaying over the record. The creepiest part was worse though. Far worse. There were cages aliening the wall, small cages that looked like they could hold a rat or something. And they were. Except not rats someone would keep as a pet. Dead rats. Rats that looked like they had been caught and kept in cages until they had starved to death, and then still kept in cages. Then my heart jumped as I saw a lump of rags in a corner. Except the rags were breathing. Someone was sleeping in the room and I sure didn't want to find out who it was. "Come on Sammy we need to get out of here!"

"No need to tell me!" she answered as we began to slip away to find the path. Then behind us we heard a creak and male voices. "Hide!" Sammy whispered and we jumped into the nearest bushes. Then through the leaves we watched as the front door began to slowly open and the voices get louder. Then the plaid man George stepped outside with a huge smile on his face, Plaid hat slightly askew. "Hey that's George the crazy man I told-" except then Sammy shushed me as we saw a second man walk out of the house.

Houston.


End file.
